Thursday, March 19, 2009

Like the little meeja dahling that I'm not really but try and pretend I am sometimes, I've been following the Twitter feed for the Guardian Media Summit.

I know. How modern.

At some point it seems this 1969 film was presented, which the Post Office of all people made to try and help predict the communications technology of the future. It's brilliant! But like those 1950s films where everyone wears bits of tinfoil and eats liquidised food.

Some early thoughts:

1. Someone had fun making that model of the town.2. Everyone is very white.3. Royal Mail appear to imply that every man in the future will have a cheap bit of fluff on the side. In fact, women do not come across well here.4. OMG that wallpaper.5. OMG some of those fashions are back in now.

In all fairness, they have a fairly good idea of some of the ideas, even if they don't hit on the way the technology will be used or the information delivered.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The jury is still well and truly out on the Burger King perfume but this I feel more confident as claiming as a spoof.

It is. isn't it? It has to be. Isn't it? Oh please say it is.

It's a good one though. I wish I had that much time on my hands.

I went to a Q&A with Toby Whithouse last night, the man behind Being Human.

I have to stop talking about Being Human.

UPDATE: Instead, we can all finally start getting excited about In The Loop with the sneak peeeeeek available on that linky link. Now where the frick is my frickin' trailer for this? It's supposed to be out next month. Get busy in the editing suite, peoples.. Or I'll come and Mal-Tucker your world.. so I will.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to hear Shami Chakrabarti speak at a private event for charities. She is amazing and I have made no secret about the fact I think she is brilliant and her work stunningly important (what most people miss is that she is also uproariously funny and definitely one of the people on my dream dinner party list, if catering for more than two people at a time didn't give me palpitations).

Back then she was passionate in her defence on the Human Rights Act, and it is good to see she still holds the sameviews.

Repealing the HRA would be dangerous folly, leaving civil liberties in the UK effectively stranded alone in the world and open to manipulation by whichever party happens to be in power at the time. Scoring political points by abandoning effective legislation is stoopid.

I'm not saying it's perfect, and may have ideological imperfections, but it's the best we have, and the longer it stands the more continuous a stretch back in time it experiences, the stronger it becomes. The world may have changed dramatically in the last sixty years, but fundamental human rights have not. More people should know about the HRA.

Also, is anyone else angered by the ruling that it is now illegal to take pictrues of police on the streets? Surely that's part of the police gig, tight? And one person in such a heavy uniform looks fairly indistinct from another??

WELL HERE'S STICKING IT TO THE MAN.

* Although I did really enjoy it and am happy it has won a second series. It has its flaws, but that just makes it all the more endearing, if you ask me. It's homespun. And it has one of the best Harry Potter quotes I ever did see.